"Harold Jellicoe Percival died aged 99 without close friends or relatives at hand at a nursing home, where staff worried no one would be at his funeral to mark his passing.

"But after a public appeal in The Gazette and on social networks for the Second World War veteran, roads were blocked with traffic and the crematorium unable to hold the numbers of mourners at his funeral, poignantly beginning at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. ...

" 'It's just staggering,' his nephew, Andre Collyer-Worsell, said after attending the service. ... He was not a hero, he was just someone who did his duty in World War Two, just as his brother and sister did and his father before him in World War One. We were expecting a few people, a few local veterans but suddenly it snowballed. It's the sort of send-off you would want to give any loved one.' "

The Associated Press writes from Lancashire that Rev. Alan Clark, who conducted the service, told those gathered that "you have come in numbers surpassing anything that was expected. Not because you knew him, but because each of us has a common humanity."

The BBC adds that another nephew, David Worsell, could not attend the funeral. But he spoke to the network about his uncle:

"He was a private man. He worked in Australia for a number of years as a decorator and would visit England for holidays. He travelled around England with only his backpack. He didn't have a postal address — he just used to get everything sent to my mother's address and would go through it when they met up."

BBC Radio Lancashire reporter Steve Becker notes that "we'll never know the answer to the question posed by many people at the service: What would this quiet man have made of his send off? But most suspected he'd have been secretly pleased and proud."

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Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Hundreds of people in Lythem, England gave a salute to the past this week. They attended the funeral of Harold Jellicoe Percival, a man many of them never met.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Mr. Percival died at the age of 99. He served with the Royal Air Force bomber command during the Second World War. He worked as a ground crew member servicing planes as they prepared to fly over Germany, bombing dams and other targets.

INSKEEP: He never married, had no immediate families so few mourners were expected. In fact, his nephew said he thought two or three people might turn up.

WERTHEIMER: A funeral home put an ad in the local paper that said, quote, "Any service personnel who can attend his funeral service would be appreciated."

INSKEEP: And that appeal spread on social media until yesterday. Hundreds showed up for his funeral.

(APPLAUSE)

WERTHEIMER: And those people applauded as the car carrying Harold Jellicoe Percival's remains arrived. Not everyone could fit into the chapel for his service. Hundreds stood outside in the rain.

(SOUNDBITE OF BUGLE SONG, "THE LAST POST")

INSKEEP: About 400 in all paid their last respects. As a bugler played "The Last Post," the British version of "Taps."